Wish List/Predictions for the 2016 Season

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Yes, definitely Lendorf as Colas. Also Lendorf would be excellent as Desire - the choreography of this version would suit him very well. Basically, yes to anything Lendorf is doing.

Would also like to see what Gorak might do with Colas, and also Cornejo.

As you were typing, I edited out the idea of Lendorf as Colas (in my post) just to express my general desire to see him dance period--but in fact I think he has the potential to be great as Colas and...uh...yes to anything he is dancing as you say!

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The NY Times Arts preview section states that the ABT 2018 spring season at the Met will include seven full length ballets plus one mixed rep program. The mixed rep program will include a new ballet by Wayne McGregor. The season is as follows:

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I need to see more of his ballets. Apart from Seven Sonatas, I'm not really a fan of his work, or his choice of music. I enjoyed his Nutcracker the first two times I saw it, but then the humor became repetitious. Admittedly, he is extremely inventive, but I'm still a Petipa gal at heart.

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Was Whipped Cream so well attended this year that it had to return next spring? (I skipped it.) ABT might want to take a leaf from the Metropolitan Opera's book: when introducing a new production or an entirely new opera, they wait a season or two before returning it to the stage. They learned this lesson some years ago when The Ghosts of Versailles was repeated the season after it debuted, and attendance was poor--everyone who wanted to see it had already done so and it was too soon for a revisit. Just as there was no compelling reason to repeat Golden Cockerel this year, I suspect Whipped Cream may sell poorly unless ABT markets it aggressively as a summer children's ballet event. Good luck, because I don't see it happening. As far as the McGregor/Firebird double-bill, well, I hate to say it, but that Firebird should be destined for the ballet graveyard. Let ABT amortize the cost of it with a few more performances (and cast MC in it; her fans will buy tickets to see her in anything), and then quietly let it slip away. One final sigh from the depths: no Ashton next spring. How depressing.

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Oh I am so disappointed by this lineup of ballets for spring 2018. Were it not for the chance to see a few of the exciting young ballerinas who were newly promoted, I would skip the whole season. Let's hope one of them will be Juliet. Even though ABT's R&J is interminably long, I would sit through it for one of them. Glad I have a fistful of tickets for NYCB's three seasons.

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Whipped Cream sold extremely well. Given the challenges ABT has had filling (or even partly filling) the Met, I am not at all surprised they're bringing it back — particularly considering that they bring back almost everything for a second year at the Met, no matter how ill received.

Opera — and the Met Opera especially — is not particularly comparable to the ABT situation, given that ABT's repertoire of full-length ballets (for better or worse, the bread and butter of the Met season) is very small in comparison.